SA u20 rugby training group 2014 by school & position

The South African Rugby Union (SARU) announces the names of the following players who have been identified to the SARU Under-20 Programme for 2014 in preparation of the IRB Junior World Championship which takes place in Auckland, New Zealand.

SARU Under-20 Head Coach Dawie Theron, members of the management team and the SARU High Performance Mobi Unit will make a second visit to provincial unions to communicate its playing strategy and plans for the season. These sessions will be delivered to the players indicated below.

@beet: Too many players IMO beet !! When will they cut the numbers (bearing in mind that there are only 2 training camps being held) ?
12 props, 9 locks, 9 flanks, 10 wings, 10 centres !! I don’t see the logic in that.
Perhaps they should test the guys when they get together at the end of March and drop those that aren’t fit enough (in comparison with the set standards).
I have to admit though that it is quite a talented group.

Some tough choices to be made in certain positions. Scrumhalf and flyhalf will produce interesting outcomes. One assumes that Pollard is a certainty based on 2 years of experience but the battle is on for the 2nd #10 spot. I think it will be tight between du Plessis, Marais, vd Walt and Eksteen. Marais and vd Walt are better kickers while Eksteen and du Plessis are better attackers with the ball in hand.

Scrumhalves Wright and Smith have shown what they can do at u19 level. Phillips is an untested hot contender tho.

@Muzi: So much time, so many opportunities and yet still so little to show for it. At least the best SBR fly in SA in 2012, JLDup, has an opportunity to impress. Now the Saarks just need to learn to manage him properly, with Swiel they have the 2 best young flys in SA on their books.

Good to see our Kings boys in there, Kevy Kaba was quality last year for Kings u21s and u19s. It’s a pity he might have a very serious injury. Aidon will only be back next month from his knee injury, so he should be at the camp. Sergeal is good and fit and should be ready for the camps

@Muzi: Muzi a bit of the topic maybe. See you mention Andre as agent but he is not registered at Sarpa nor SARU as agent? There is currently confusion regarding rules and regulations when contracting schoolboys up to u/21. Can you give us more info regarding this?

3.7 No Club or Province shall enter into a written agreement with any Player
which enables the Player to receive Material Benefit unless:

3.7.1 such Player has reached the age of 1 8 y e a r s ; or

3.7.2 in the case of a Player between the age of 16 and 18 years, such
Material Benefit takes the form of a non refundable financial grant to
be applied only for the purposes of a Player’s academic and/or
vocational training for a period of 12 months or longer.

Approved by General Meeting on 6 December 2013
5
3.8 No Club or Province shall enter into an agreement with a Player under the
age of 18 years, in terms of which:

3.8.1 the termination date of such agreement is after the date on which the
Player turns 18 years; or

3.8.2 the commencement date of the agreement is on or after the date on
which the Player turns 18 years; or

3.8.3 the Player undertakes, promises or agrees to, or gives an option to
enter into a Player’s contract for Material Benefit after reaching the
age of 18 years.

So if we read the above schoolboys younger than 16 is a definite no go regarding contracting.
Between 16 – 18 any bursaries to be paid is non refundable and may only be used for schoolfees and/or rugby related training expenses. So performance related stipulations etc is a no go.

To me, it looks like they are not only preparing for this years U20 world cup, but next years as-well – in terms of playing patterns etc

I find it interesting in the article how it stated Dawie Theron will be visiting provinces to discuss there playing patterns etc – is this not where our young players perhaps lose their creativity as they are scared of making mistakes and playing outside of the game plan..?

@ Woltrui- I see you favour Blue Bulls players in a lot of positions and even for captain.. World champ status could be close but we all know the JNR teams have been struggling the last few years..Do not write off JP du Preez(lock) from the Lions and EG Jansen before,who was rated the tallest and one of the best players in craven week 2012..This boy is huge and strong these days..Also Dayan vd Westhuizen(Centurion-Bulls) and Frans van Wyk( Monnas-Lions) at prop and Jano Venter at lock (Lions and HTS Middelburg)

There are some certainties in this group…the rest are wasting their time…Pollard at 10/ Kriel at 15/ Esterhuizen at centre with van Rensburg/ the Dups from KZN – both/ Peterson on wing/ Schoeman at prop although he is over rated in my view…Jaco van der Walt will be the second 10 for sure, Galant the utility back with Daniel Kriel…my first choice for what its worth:
15 Kriel
14 Peterson
13 Esterhuizen
12 Van Rensburg
11 Mathews
10 Pollard
9 Wright
8 Venter
7 Du Preez
6 Not sure
5 Du Preez
4 Koegelenberg
3 Not sure
2 Marx
1 Not sure
@jakes – being the tallest player in rugby doesn’t make you good bud…this JP guy was far below par outside of the line outs…he cannot carry a ball in contact and cant get to make tackles due to him being so slow…he is below par…the fact that he played B team rugby all is life barring the last year at school shows

@boxkick: Some of your certainties are a waste of time, but will sadly be selected, as you rightly pointed out. No problems with Peterson, Esterhuizen, Mathews (although I would prefer vd Merwe), Koegelenberg and Marx though.

If they play Pollard at 10, they need to select a creative 1st center and Galant at 15. If both Pollard at 10 and Kriel at 15 are “certainties”, Ezterhuizen should play at 12 and Galant at 13, at the very least. Frankly, for all the bitching when Pollard was moved to 12, he plays like a 12 at 10 anyway, so personally I would move him to 12, play Esterhuizen at 13, Peterson and vd Merwe on the wings and Galant at 15. If we don’t start with players in the mold of JL Dup and Swiel at 10 soon, our rugby will continue to fall further behind NZ and the rest, true story.

As for certainties: Philips, Schickerling, Vermeulen and Bothma, no doubt they will be playing at senior level long after we have forgotten most of the names on this list.

@Ploegskaar: I agree with your comments on flyhalf, we need a more attacking approach – JL is a brilliant player and I hope he gets a chance, although Pollard will more than likely walk into the team.

I also like Gellant, and if the big strong Esterhuizen is inside him giving him some space, he could be deadly.

Your young players – ie Vermeulen, Bothma etc are all in with a shout. Also keep an eye out for the young Sharks 8, Schramm – he is not as well known due to his untimely injury in the first game at CW, but he is blady good and highly rated.

He had a great first half against the Bulls and his injury was a real pitty. He went on to play in the second part of the u19 season last year and looked really good – to boot, he has also bulked up and is looking very strong at 110kgs

Competition is going to be massive – a very good thing for SA going forward.

I’m glad you bored old farts are speculating over this team. At least it’s keeping you busy. The Baby Blacks will slaughter them.

The only players who’ll make an impression are The Dups, Stephan Vermeulen, Andre Esterhuizen and Chris Massyn ( not included, hope that straight right on Venter’s chin last year is not counting against him ). These boys will stand their ground. If I ever have to go the Agliotti way, these 5 will be my bodyguards I think Pollard is highly overrated.

@RBugger: I have unfortunately seen very little of Schramm, but the feedback on him has certainly been positive. 1.92m, 110Kg and a great skill-set is certainly a good start for a 8 nowadays (similar to Spies’ stats in fact).

OMG!!! …..some people can’t accept that Handre Pollard is the best Under 20 flyhalf in this country….sheer ignorance at it’s core…he has a wealth of experience at this level….let alone he’s a damn super rugby player for goodness sake…..hate it or love it barring injury Oom Dawie Theron will select him at 10 deal with it.

@boxkick: ‘
hmmmm maybe you have brains compared to this lot….your backline is beast…..in my honest opinion Duhan van der Merwe is a better wing than Duncan.
Pierre Schoeman will be the first choice loose head prop….

@Ploegskaar:
In the Under 19 final last year Massyn was evenly matched by the impressive Venter he’s a great ball carrier….his ball handling skills were appauling….hot headed at times…punching players left and right discipline will be his downfall….

@Muzi: Look, Pollard is an excellant player – no doubt, any guy playing at the level he is at that age, is special.

I just view him as more of a 12 type of player – big, strong guy who likes to take the ball up, perhaps I am wrong.

The problem Muzi, and you might have a dig at me here, he is playing for the Bulls and I am worried they may have changed his playing style. All Bulls fly-halves seem to be in the same mould. He has 2 brilliant centres outside him in the S15 and I hope this gives him the freedom to play a more open game.

Schramm just like Bothma and the rest of the youngsters, have it all to prove. School has come and gone and reputations now mean nothing, they are all on the same playing field at this camp and as the saying goes, time will tell where these guys get to

@RBugger: Pollard definitely a better 12 than 10. But must also mentioned he had the best young flyhalf , now at Lions, on his inside being Willie du Plessis. Unfortunately Pollard does not fit the mould of a Bulls inside centre. Another great Talent reduced to Bulls garbage.

@Ploegskaar: Ploeg we find that everybody is always complaining about our backlines not being on par with the rest of the world BUT nobody complain about the 10. And this all starts with coaching.
Our rugby is coached to boredom and dullness. The coaches is becoming more important than the game.

@Tjoppa: If we assume that the cream of SA rugby talent is assembled at the various franchises and contracted because they were considered the best in their various positions, why receive more coaching outside defensive patterns, first phase and max. second phase? There is a fine line between over-coached and well-coached, example: this weekend the Sharks were a well-coached team and the Bulls obviously an over-coached team. Sadly, the Cheetahs seemed a poorly coached team and the Lions an extremely lucky team.

Ploeg due to my support to the Lions I am was a wealthy man on Saturday night. I won the biggest pot in history at the old age home. Needless to say I was the only one supporting the Lions. But do not under estimate them. I think they did well disrupting the Cheetahs and then with good defense and penalties won the game. Something like that won us the 1995 World Cup?

But agree if we take the first season or two of the Varsity Cup and compare it with the current season. We can clearly see the effect of coaching on talent.

I would like to ask the couches above to give JP du Preez some change. You dont know how he improved in his game, the strenght he is showing. Would like to ask the couches were they get there feedback from. Let see what develope out of this. Goodluck.

@jakes: I need to react on discussing JP Du Preez of the Lions. He looks good, shows a lot of strength, and his line-outs, he’s not only taking his balls but also his opponents balls as well. I hope he gets a fair change,and the best for him at the Babyboks training camp. GO JP Go, make us proud.